Essays on trans, intersex, cis and other persons and topics from a trans perspective.......All human life is here.

This site is the most comprehensive on the web devoted to trans history and biography. Well over 1400 persons worthy of note, both famous and obscure, are discussed in detail, and many more are mentioned in passing.)

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26 February 2016

Chris, originally from California, was four and a half years in the US Army,
and then was a merchant seaman. He lived a year in east Asia. He then settled in
New York.

In the mid 1960s, he took up female impersonation, and appeared with Frank
Bennet in the Follies Mantisque. This led to work with the Jewel Box
Revue, at first doing a comedy strip. However it was discovered that he
could impersonate Ethel Merman rather well, and started singing songs from
Gypsy. He then added Marlene Dietriche and Bette Davis to his repertoire.
He used a special heavy makeup to hide the tattoo on his upper arm. He was also
partially blind and required thick glasses.

He met Lee Brewster and Vicky
West in the Mattachine Society, and left with them to found the Queens
Liberation Front. In 1971 Chris won the Most Outstanding Performance at the
April in Paris Ball, and again at Lee's Mardi Gras Ball.

Chris was a constant at QLF parties, but after a few years she was diagnosed
with cancer. She was able to fight it for over five years. Lee Brewster put on a
special ball for Chris so that she could perform and be the star, and Vicky drew
her for the cover of Drag magazine.

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About Zagria

I have a social science degree. I spent several years in the 70s doing Gay Lib counselling, and moved on to organizing trans groups. I was rejected by the Clarke Institute (now CAMH) in the mid 1980s, probably because I do not match either of their stereotypes, but was accepted by Russel Reid on our first meeting in late 1987, and had surgery from James Dalrymple some months later. I have mainly worked as an IT consultant. I have been with the same husband for 45 years.